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" The Land Rover Defender is a legend. The final evolution of a vehicle whose history reaches back to WWII, the solid-axle off-roader has gone from pragmatic field implement to fashionable accessory for those who want to appear rugged and capable. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The last of the\u00A0stalwart British truck, still hand-assembled the old-fashioned way, will be built at the end of this year. After\u00A0a 65-year lineage, the old barn is just too outdated to bring up to speed with modern safety, emissions, and fuel economy demands. But these drafty old beasts still have a strong following in their homeland. Witness the\u00A0flush of farewell special editions\u00A0being\u00A0cranked out by Land Rover. And for loyalists who wish for a bit more power than the 150-some horses of the stock model, Twisted Automotive has the answer.  There are a lot of shops out there that specialize in cramming too much horsepower into a historically underpowered platform. Most of the time, it&amp;#039;s done with a winking sort of irony\u2014&amp;quot;check out how wicked this Trabant is with a V8 made from two Hayabusas!&amp;quot; Charles Fawcett&amp;#039;s Twisted Automotive isn&amp;#039;t that sort of shop, despite the name. You can tell within moments that this is a true Defender loyalist, a lover of the brand in spite of\u2014or in fact, because of\u2014all its idiosyncrasies.\u00A0 &amp;quot;Not wanting to criticize the vehicle at all,&amp;quot; he says of the Defender, &amp;quot;but at motorway speeds it&amp;#039;s noisy. You can&amp;#039;t let go of the steering wheel\u2014it will wander.&amp;quot;\u00A0 That fair criticism comes from a dyed-in-the-wool fan. &amp;quot;At no point in reality do you want to be without a Defender once you&amp;#039;ve owned one,&amp;quot; Fawcett says. &amp;quot;It might not be your car of choice every day, but it&amp;#039;s something that just runs through the blood.&amp;quot; You&amp;#039;ll understand the depth of Fawcett&amp;#039;s love for the Defender when you see what his company builds. Yes, they&amp;#039;re 550-horse fire-breathers making sounds and speeds that no barn-like Defender should ever be able to achieve. But they&amp;#039;re so lovingly crafted, so faithful to the characteristics that made us fall in love with these Land Rovers in the first place, it feels unclean lumping Twisted&amp;#039;s work in among the overblinged, tastelessly glitzed hot rod massacres from the likes of, say, Mansory. See for yourself. If you don&amp;#039;t want to run out and buy a Defender after this, you&amp;#039;ll never understand our love for these charming brutes.      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/style/videos/a25131/corvette-powered-defenders-the-best-of-a-dying-breed/>